Breaking New Ground

Winning starts at home.

Once upon a time, back when teams could only meet and practice online, that often meant our parents’ homes. We’ve gone a long way since then, and most professional teams now own team houses where players can dedicate themselves to their crafts. However, there is still so much more we can do to foster a winning environment.

Fortunately, we are now in a position to build a space to call our own. We have broken ground and started construction on a 9,000 square foot Team Liquid Headquarters in Los Angeles, just 5 minutes away from Riot Games studios. More than just a practice facility, our new headquarters will house offices for our support staff, screening rooms, and a dedicated space for 1UP Studios. We’ve only just begun and it’s still a long way to completion, but we’d like to share our vision for the future.

We will be updating our office subsite as construction on our new HQ progresses. Expect to see more pictures, videos, and details soon.

People Who Will Use It:

Support Staff

Team Managers

Coaches

Staff Members

Running an esports team requires more than just teams of players; there is a whole ecosystem of supporting staff and managers that make an organization tick. Esports has grown a lot since the early days, and we’re fortunate enough to be able to do what we love.

Our new office holds productive, well-equipped workstations, with an open office in the center housing most of our in-house staff. We will also have a conference room, closed offices, a front desk, and even a coffee bar to make sure everyone’s perked up and ready for the day. We want the organization working as a team in one location—collaborating, sharing ideas, and just hanging out together.

The Open Office Concept

We’ve chosen an open office layout because it suits our organization from a practical and cultural standpoint. Our different divisions and staff work closely with so many others that having borders just hinders our performance. We’ll also be able to adjust with modular fixtures, and having that flexibility will be great as our team continues to grow.

People Who Will Use It:

Support Staff

Team Managers

Coaches

Staff Members

Open offices are great for collaborating and sharing ideas, but we know that it is sometimes necessary to have a little more privacy to accomplish one’s work. That’s why we have 4 different war rooms where our staff, managers, or coaches can isolate themselves and work without distractions. They can conduct video conferences, make private calls, hold brainstorming sessions, work together on a project, or even just take a timeout in one of our war rooms.

Ready for War

Our War Rooms will be equipped just like our offices, with computers, monitors, webcams, internet, and other peripherals. Staff will be able to occupy these rooms with little setup necessary, and the four rooms will all be ready for daily use. We also encourage our staff to take breaks that promote productivity, so don’t be surprised to see the war room actually used for a ladder game or two.

People Who Will Use It:

LCS Team

LCS Coach

One of the main purposes of our new facility is to be able to maintain the most effective work environment for our players. The first step is to have a better delineation between work and leisure areas, so that players can concentrate more when they are at work and relax more when they are at home. The second is to create a more professional atmosphere where all staff and players can conduct themselves properly. The mix between team house and practice house was simply not effective. Finally, we want to provide all the tools and support staff necessary to excel. Having our analysts and staff working in the same area is very beneficial, and our purposefully designed scrim room and screening room will encourage more effective practice and review.

More Than Just a Practice Facility

We want to afford our players with the right platform in order to succeed. More than just an upgraded practice room, we are surrounding our players with more support staff that will be able to contribute invaluable insight and guidance. We are taking a holistic approach to improvement, but our trio of practice rooms is still the centerpiece of our new HQ.

People Who Will Use It:

CS:GO Team

CS:GO Coach

This is the dedicated scrim room for our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Each game requires very different and exacting preparations, and each player has preferences that impact how they play the game. This is very true for CS:GO, and our scrim room will be set up just the way our players like it. Their assigned computers will have their specific mouse and keyboard, mouse sensitivity, scroll sensitivity, crosshair type, and monitor settings. Even their chairs will be reclined at their preferred angle. The room will be fitted to the specifications of our team and coach to ensure a positive practice environment.

America’s Team

Our short form video series, ‘America’s Team’, follows our CS:GO team on their quest to achieve international success. Our CS:GO scrim room will feature prominently in future videos once it’s completed, but expect to see more updates—through photos and videos—as construction continues. You’ll be able to see the similarities between our different scrim rooms, and hopefully, the subtle differences too.

People Who Will Use It:

Players

Analysts

Coaches

Adjacent to our LCS and CS:GO Scrim Rooms will be individual screening rooms where teams will review their games and scrims. We want to make the most of our practice, and the best way to learn is to rewatch and dissect mistakes, effective tactics, areas for improvement, and openings that can be exploited. Each screening room will be fitted with a large TV where every detail can be analyzed, computers where our analysts can prepare visuals and diagrams, and comfortable couches.

Partnering with Mobalytics and Overwolf

In order to make our post-scrim review process more efficient, we have partnered with Mobalytics and Overwolf to provide tools and data. Mobalytics is one of the best esports-focused data firms currently in operation, and we have been working with members of their team since our time as Curse. Overwolf will create the apps that allow us to focus our review sessions: highlight captures, replay/rewind, and other timeline tools.

People Who Will Use It:

Challenger Team

Challenger Coach

Bootcamp Teams

Coaches

Next year, we intend to field an Academy team focused on development and growth. Our Academy team will have their own scrim room, and it will have a setup that is as close to identical as possible to our LCS scrim room. Therefore, our third scrim room will have the same luxuries and equipment, sans the dedicated screening room.

While our Academy players will be invited to live and train in the same environment as our LCS team, it is possible that they will not be here full-time, year round.

Ready for Bootcamp

Our third scrim room will also accommodate our teams who will be bootcamping in Los Angeles. This could include our our Halo team, our PUBG squad, our Smashers, or even our Dota team should they fly over from across the pond. The room will be equipped with the proper stations, such as CRTs for Smash and full setups for our console gamers. We look forward to every opportunity to host one of our many teams and have more of our organization under one roof, and we will now be able to hold bootcamps in both LA and the Netherlands.

People Who Will Use It:

1UP Studios

1UP Studios is Team Liquid’s video production team. Over the past 2 years, 1UP has become one of the leading content producers in esports, with acclaimed titles such as ‘Breaking Point’, ‘ReBirth’, and ‘America’s Team’. In order to continue to push the boundaries of esports coverage, 1UP will now have an upgraded office inside TLHQ LA. The new 1UP studio will have everything that they need to plan, storyboard, and execute their visions, from high-end computers, all the latest video capture technologies, and other equipment. Expect to see even more from 1UP once their new workshop is completed.

Ready For Our Close-Up

Previously, 1UP Studios was located a few doors down from our team house. Lugging equipment between the practice location and their office was inefficient, and we wanted to put 1UP right in the action on a daily basis. As our production team has grown, they’ve also required a bigger office with better equipment. That’s why we’re allocating an entire corner of our new facility specifically for our video team.

People Who Will Use It:

1UP Studios

Aside from a dedicated office, 1UP will also have areas specifically for editing, interviewing, and VR. Editing requires a lot of equipment and privacy, and it is important for us to provide a room that’s conducive for the creative process—after all, this is where the magic happens. Our editing bays will have high quality color grading monitors, 4K monitors for high resolution video output, control panels, studio monitors, and high end computers optimized for video production.

Our interview room will be fitted with appropriate backdrops, soundproofing, and lighting to make sure we get the answers that you want to hear. A lot of gear goes into capturing the right moments: video cameras, tripods, tripod dollies, lighting kits, different microphones, boom poles, shock mounts, high-end cables, light reflectors, and other rigs.

Finally, we will have a small booth for VR. We haven’t released anything in VR yet, but our team is exploring the best way to incorporate it into our portfolio of video projects. We are always eager to dive into new technologies and methods, and this new studio gives us the ability to adapt quickly—and then show you the results.

People Who Will Use It:

Chef Karla

Team Managers

Our players will be spending their days practicing in this facility, with scrims scheduled throughout the day. We don’t want them to worry about lunch or dinner, and that’s why we have included a kitchen and dining area in our plans. Our kitchen will have all the essential appliances necessary to cook up anything our chef can imagine, and we’ll be stocking our refrigerator with fresh produce from local grocery stores. Health and nutrition is an important part of player performance, and our team manager will help ensure that everyone is eating right and staying hydrated.

What’s On the Menu?

The kitchen will have a board above showcasing the day’s specials. Chef Karla is already intimately aware of our players’ preferences and dietary needs, and they’ll be able to order up food based on her changing menu. Meals are an important part of the team atmosphere, and we want to make it as fun and refreshing as possible. Lunch is especially important because it’s the pick-me-up sandwiched between scrims.